America First, Last and Always!

The Season 8 mid-season finale of ″The Walking Dead″ was quite a shocker. As promised, the AMC series ended the year with a very emotional episode. While the war between Rick and his allies against Negan and The Saviors turns for the worse, we learn an even sadder plot twist. Carl Grimes, Rick′s son, had been bitten by a walker. Worse yet, it was on the right side of Carl′s abdomen. No amputation will help the teenage hero. He is doomed to die!

Carl, played by Chandler Riggs, has literally grown up on the set of ″The Walking Dead″. From the beginning in Season 1, Carl has gone through a lot. First he thought his father, Rick, was dead. Later he was shot in the chest and nearly died. Carl watched his mother, Laurie, die after giving birth to Baby Judith, then he had to shoot his mom after she turned into a walker. Carl suffered from many hardships, losing many friends along the way. Just as he was discovering love with his flame, Enid, Carl was shot in the head, losing his right eye. Then Negan came along and used Carl against Rick a number of times.

But last night, it was Carl who saved the day, leading the inhabitants of Alexandria into the sewers to hide from Negan. Carl even tried to sacrifice himself, offering his life if Negan would spare the others. This show of courage even put Negan back on his heels. Negan has shown a certain respect and even fatherly affection towards Carl. Which is why Negan declined the offer and instead ordered his Saviors to attack Alexandria. Something for which we can blame Darryl and Tara for.

The war against The Saviors had been going well according to the plan devised by Rick, Maggie and King Ezekiel. The main compound of The Saviors, the factory complex known as The Sanctuary, had been isolated and surrounded by hundreds of walkers. Rick and his allies had then split up to take out the various Savior outposts. Most of those attacks went well until the Kingdom Regiment led by Ezekiel was cut to pieces by a pair of .50 caliber machine guns at the chemical works outpost. Only Carol, Jerry and Ezekiel made it out alive. But last night, we saw The Saviors invade The Kingdom. Carol took charge of those who escaped, leaving Ezekiel behind as he distracts the invaders.

In last night′s episode, Maggie and a group of the Hilltop′s fighters were ambushed by some Saviors led by Simon, one of Negan′s top lieutenants. Threatening to kill Jerry, Simon orders Maggie to return to the Hilltop and gives her a coffin-shaped box with holes cut in it. He wants her to put one of her residents in it to trade for Jerry, along with all of their food. Instead, Maggie executes a Savior prisoner being held at the Hilltop. She writes on the box, ″We have 38 others, stand down″ on the box, which is left outside the walls.

Back at Alexandria, Rick arrives only to find his community in tatters as Negan′s people run loose. Rick′s plan to lay siege to The Sanctuary was pissed away when Darryl and Tara decided to finish the Saviors off in a hasty scheme. Darryl crashed a garbage truck through the factory wall, allowing the surrounding walkers to enter. This forced The Saviors to act by using much of their ammunition to cut down the walkers. Eugene had devised a plan of his own to rig some sort of sound system, probably using the Factory′s PA system, to lead the rest of the walkers away during the pandemonium. Thanks to Eugene, Negan was now free to seek revenge on Rick and his allies.

As Rick searches for Carl, Judith and Michone at his house in Alexandria, Negan is there waiting for him. The two men duke it out, mano-e-mano. Rick almost gets the upper hand, using the bloody baseball bat, Lucille, against Negan. But this only fills Negan with more rage as he recovers Lucille and sends Rick crashing through a window on to his front lawn. Rick had recovered his revolver before getting pushed outside. After shooting one Savior, Rick is rejoined with Michone, who leads Rick underground. In the sewers of Alexandria, Rick finds the survivors of the night′s terror huddled in the damp darkness. He also finds Carl, who lifts his shirt and peels off a bandage to show his father the bite mark. Both Rick and Michone are stunned. They know there is nothing they can do.

Carl was bitten in an earlier episode when he was alone in the woods looking for Saddiq, a stranger Carl and Rick had run into days before. Rick had chased Saddiq away, but Carl felt bad about it. The guy was only looking for food and water. Carl was kind of upset that his dad had become so cold and ruthless. Rick had no time to think about strays, he had bigger fish to fry. So Carl searched and found Saddiq, bringing him some food and water. Carl even asked Saddiq the ′3 Questions′ which determined whether or not somebody was acceptable to join their merry group. Saddiq answered them correctly and Carl was leading him back to Alexandria when they were set upon by a group of walkers. During the scuffle, a walker bit Carl, making his short life even shorter.

Carl still has one more day to live. He will play a big role in the next episode of AMC′s ″The Walking Dead″ which will return on February 25. My guess is that Carl will perform some last act of bravery to stop, or even capture Negan. This plot twist is a major deviation from the plot line of the comic book series, where Carl lives on well past the war against The Saviors. Chandler Riggs has done a remarkable job playing the role of Carl Grimes. Since the age of 10, Chandler has given fans 8 years of some of the best acting on television. Who can forget Carl eating away at a big can of chocolate pudding or getting kissed by Enid while they hide from some walkers in the hollow of a tree? Carl has been a character whom fans have grown to love and he will be sorely missed as the series moves forward.

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